Running Out of Time
by moonshinenjelly
Summary: When Kate is captured by an old flame, she knows when she breaks that'll be the end, but how long can she last, she's already damage goods, how will she get out of this alive? Will Castle find her in time? Set late S4, before Always.
1. Chapter 1

Howdy there, first fic, inspiration struck me! Sorry in advance for the mistakes, English is not my strong point!

Enjoy!

* * *

Kate's head was foggy, she opened her eyes, but all she could see was black, she then realised she had a hood over her head, taped suffocatingly tight around her neck, slightly restricting her breathing. She could feel the anxiety level rising quickly. Furiously trying to recall what had happened. Slowly coming to her senses, she tried to take in what she could about her surroundings. She was sitting down on the ground, but her hands were bound above her head, not budging as the heavy duty zip ties were digging into her skin. Hopefully she had been gone long enough for someone to realise. Castle would find her. Her heart drops at the thought of him. The last thing she remembered was walking down to car park with him. Her thoughts are interrupted by the door slamming shut.

"Ah, Ms. Beckett, oh, my apologises, De-tective Beckett now." Slowly drawing the word off his tongue, as if he was amused at the word, "Guess who?" The deep soothing southern voice was undeniable.

"Crayley." she stated. "You're dead, I put three rounds in your chest. You're dead" she repeated as if it were more of a question.

"That's where you're wrong Katherine, you know me, I have a lot of powerful friends. You still left me for dead, plus you ain't even sorry for it." He whispered surprisingly calm.

"That's goddamn right" she replied with more confidence then she had. Anyway, all she had to do was stall. 'Where's Castle?' The words escaped her trembling lips before she could stop herself. Not knowing whether she wanted to know the answer.

"You're mine girl" he snarled at her, she felt the cool hard edge of a knife press against her throat, stinging slightly at the touch. "I'm done playing nice." The knife was now letting a stray drop of blood down her neck. "I loved you, but I was never good enough was I?"

"You couldn't let go!" She spat back outraged, regretting it immediately, remembering what he was capable of. He coils the blade back, tearing off the hood painfully in one swift motion. Blinking a few times she tried to adjust to the light, there he was, James Crayler in the flesh, very much so alive.

"My dear Katherine, there a few thing you should become aware of. Firstly, you ain't getting outta here alive." He smirked, pacing up and down in the small space in front of her. She suddenly became very consciously aware that she was only in a shirt and panties. He continued, "Secondly, the only time I'm gonna let you have the sweet embrace of death, is if you beg of me." She silently stifled a laugh at the end, she had no intention of dying here. He sensed it, "Katherine, please." Almost as he was disappointed in her, "By the end, you'll want to be dead." With that, he swung his leg into her side, the tip of his steel tipped boots coming in contact with her ribs, knocking the wind out of her, forcing her to gasp, she wasn't going to give up.

Castle woke up on the floor on the precinct car park, with the bad taste of blood in his mouth, which is never a good sign. He slowly sat up while trying to comprehend the situation at hand. Why on earth would he be on the ground?

"Oh my god" he whispered to himself, "Kate." She was with him before, no, this could not be happening, not again. He gets up, ignoring the disorienting feeling and the throbbing in his head, he ran straight back into the precinct. He wasn't losing her this time.

She was finding it slightly harder to breathe, it was only probably just bruised ribs. Not too bad. However each gasp she took sent stabs of pain down her side which told her otherwise. Crayley had left to take a phone call, so if Castle, Espo and Ryan figured out who had taken her they could just track his cell. But they would never find the connection. She had never told the boys about James, for good reasons too. She needed to stop thinking about the what ifs, rather what she could do now. There was no way she could squeeze her hands out of the zip ties, each movement making her wrists even more painful and raw.

"You're not gonna be able to get outta here honey, they ain't gonna break," he stated as he walked through the door towards her.

"I will hunt you down, you know that right? And this time you'll stay dead," she was proud about how her voice didn't waver, seeming much more confident then she actually was.

"My dear Katherine, don't make me gag you, this ain't gonna be as fun if I can't watch you scream… For me, of course," he added.

He was now crouching in front of her, less than 10 centimetres away from her face, his mouth turning into a twisted grin. She couldn't stand the way his eyes pierced into hers, hard and cold, not like they were a long time ago.

"You really haven't changed," he whispered into her ear, he brought his hand up to her face, gently cupping her cheek, still staring into her eyes, he was vulnerable at this moment, she needed to take the opportunity. But suddenly his lips were on hers, viciously attacking her, his cold hard mouth pressing against her own. His hands moving from her face to the hem of her shirt, slowly creeping up her stomach. She gasped in shock, trying to comprehend what was happening, but something clicked in her head and she begun to play along, moving her mouth against his, fighting for control. A small moan escaped from the back of his throat, she knew he was letting his guard down.

"Oh yeah, that's good, that's right, you want me," he whispered when he broke the kiss, gasping for breath. Now was her chance, this time she leant in first, gently nibbling on his lower lip, at that moment she knew she had him. She bit down as hard as could.

"Arghhhhhh!" He yelped in anguish, stumbling back as if shocked with an electric current."You bitch!" He screamed in her face, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his mouth. She could taste the metallic liquid on her tongue and spat towards him. Enraged, he brought the back of his hand down hard onto her face with a loud _crack_. She felt the tears well up unwillingly in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them escape.

"That was gonna be the alternative, we could've been happy you know." He said softly, still cradling his lip. "You chose wrong Katherine." His other hand reached into his back pocket, pulling out a box of cigarettes, "now, this is gonna be fun" reverting back to his twisted grin. Kate knew what was in store, there was no way out, she was going to die here, but not without a fight and she certainly wasn't going to beg. Castle was her only hope, she felt the tears well up again so she pushed him to the back of her mind, knowing he was the only person right now who could make her cry.

"Go to hell," was all she said, barely louder than a whisper. All he did was laugh.

* * *

**TBC?**

It would be lovely if you told me what you think!

Plus feel free to tell me just to stick to reading rather than writing :P

There will be more Castle scenes if I continue, but that's up to you I guess.

THANK YOU!


	2. Chapter 2

Oh god, not again, she couldn't be taken from him again. Castle sprinted past the elevator straight to the stairs, there was no time to lose.

"Hey Castle, I thought you- what the hell happened to your head?!" Ryan questioned him.

"No… time… Beckett." Castle furiously gasping out of breath, trying to wipe the blood out of his eyes, stumbling towards the computer.

"Wait, what happened?" Ryan asked, with concern rising in his voice.

There was just too much too say and not enough time. Castle's head was a whirl wind, he was overwhelmed, the thought of losing her made him need to sit down.

"We need to check the CCTV footage. The car park, check the car park." He said, more to himself than to the very confused Ryan in standing front of him.

He now had the attention of half the precinct, who were now staring at the writer whose hands were tainted with red stains, and had a continuous flow of blood trickling down his face. Castle couldn't care less about what people thought, time was being wasted, precious time. Who knew how much time had been lost lying on the cement floor of the car park.

"Castle. Bro, I need you to stop rambling, and tell me exactly what happened." Esposito said firmly. When did he get here? Damn, he mentally slapped himself, he really needed to focus, but his head was now beginning to spin and feel faint. He put more pressure onto the wound on his head, trying to stop the bleeding, the last thing he needed was to pass out. The last thing that Kate needed.

"W-I was walking her out," muttered Castle, squeezing his eyes tightly, as if he was only barely grasping onto the memory. "We were down in the car park, we were just walking to her car, when someone came up behind us, actually, I think there were two. There must have been, no one can move that fast. One of them went for Beckett, I think they injected something in her neck. The lights went out after that, someone else must have hit me from the side." He said quietly. Mulling over his words, he realised that it was all his fault. He was meant to protect her, his knees crumbled beneath him, sliding down the wall that was keeping him up. He didn't understand, she had stopped looking into her mother's case, he had kept his end of the bargain. Then maybe it didn't have anything to do with that, anyway Smith would have called him and warned him.

Ryan and Esposito just stared at him for a second, trying to take it what they had just heard.

"Ok, I'll get the footage sent up." Ryan began, picking up his phone.

"I need to inform Gates." Esposito said, "Castle, go clean up, you're bleeding everywhere bro."

Castle didn't object, he needed a moment, grabbing a clean shirt from the bottom of Beckett's drawers, he stumbled towards the men's room. It only took a glance in the mirror to reveal he was an absolute mess. Hi was hair matted and even under all the blood you could see the colour had been drained from his face.

"She's still alive." He whispered to himself, almost as a reassurance, he needed her to still be alive, because if she wasn't, he didn't know whether he could live through her dying again.

* * *

Kate groaned as the lit cigarette made contact with her bare stomach, she bit her lip, tasting the sickly metallic liquid on her tongue, her mouth raw, focusing on the only distraction from the searing burn into her skin. The marks were still screaming even after the butt fell to the ground. She let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in, looking down to survey the damage. Six little ugly welts to her stomach staring back at her.

"That's all you got?" She breathlessly laughed. Feeling anything but fine, all she could do was bluff, she didn't know how long she could deal with the pain, hell, she didn't even know how long she had been there.

"Oh Katherine, please don't insult me" Crayley scoffed. He was now sitting on a chair less than a metre away from her, pulling another cigarette from the box. She covered the fear she felt bubble up through her, though obviously not well enough. "No need to worry 'bout this one, I ain't gonna waste it on you." He smirked, knowing he was getting somewhere. Leaning back in his chair, he took a long drag. "You wanna know what I keep thinking 'bout?" He ignored her silence and continued. "What we could have been like if you hadn't tried to leave me."

"You tried to kill me." Kate blurted out. She had repressed these memories for so long, she was trying to stop them from bursting out of the seams. She didn't know if she could take the emotional blow.

"You weren't meant to leave." He snarled at her, jumping out of his chair, kicking it to the ground. "I loved you. You weren't calling the shots, I was!" He was now screaming at her.

"Listen to yourself! You didn't own me!" She exclaimed, she couldn't hold back now. "I would have ended up killing myself if I didn't go!" Cold fury was all she could read in his face. What the hell was she doing? "I couldn't take it anymore, I did what anyone else would do, I left!" She had crossed the line. Before she even knew what happened, his forearm was pressed against her neck, lifting her slightly up the wall, leaving her unable to breath.

"Don't." He warned. "You put three rounds in my chest, you watched me fall off that pier into that freezing water, then you disappeared." She was beginning to find it hard to understand what he was saying, the blood was pounding in her head, the darkness slowly seeping into her with every thump. "You can thank you're little writer friend, Castle right?" He gloated. "I mean without him you never would have gotten the publicity that made it so very easy for me to find you." He smiled maliciously, stepping back, removing his arm from her throat. She coughed and wheezed, trying to remove the fuzzy edges from her vision.

"Leave… him… out of this" she was gasping for breath, but she needed to keep the topic off Castle. She didn't care what happened to her, but not to him, she would never forgive herself if something were to happen to him. He had people who needed him, a daughter and a mother, plus being international bestselling author meant that his death would have much more of an impact on society than her. Just another dead disgraced cop. "He has nothing to do with this."

"Stop lying to me!" He hissed, he was out of control. "JUST STOP IT!" She barely had enough time to register him hitting her before her head snapped back and _cracked_ against the solid wall behind her.

This time she embraced the darkness that enveloped her.

* * *

**Yet again TBC?**

I'm not really sure if its worth continuing? Tell me what you think? Please?!

THANK YOU :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, I'm sorry for the (very, very) long wait, you've probably forgotten about this anyway. Life sorta got in the way, you know how it is. Anyway thanks for being understanding and all. Oh and I haven't edited very well, so there's probably mistakes so just point them out. No offence taken. **

* * *

Kate could feel the undeniable ache in the back of her head, throbbing with each heartbeat, slowly opening her eyes, she could feel that the right side of her face had become swollen. She let a groan escape her lips before she could stop it. Thankfully Crayley didn't appear to be in the room, and it gave her a chance to reassess the situation. She had no perception of time, how long had she been out? Her wrists were still tender and raw, each movement sent stinging pains up her arms from the chaffing. How could she have gotten herself into this? He was dead, she watched him fall into that river. Her emotions started to become overwhelming and she let out a small sob that echoed through the room.

"Oh Katherine, you know I always hated you crying" Crayley smirked as he opened the door. "I thought after all these years you turned into steel, emotionless Detective Beckett, lost in her Mother's murder." He wandered towards her, twisting a switchblade between his fingers.

"I have nothing to say to you." She whispered quietly, more to herself than to him. Her mind was spinning, trying to avert her eyes from the sharp blade in his hand that he was surely going to use on her.

"Fine then," he pocketed the switchblade, and sat down in front of her. "My dear, I have waited for this day for a long time, the day I finally get to one up you." His mouth twisting into a sneer, "You know how long it's been?" He asked her, his tone suggesting he required an answer, yet she refused to look into his eyes. "Tell me!" He snapped, standing up, throwing the chair back.

"Eight years." She meekly replied. Cringing at his outburst, she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold out, the fear of him was gripping her, just like it had all those years ago, like a shadow strangling her, leaving her gasping for air. Her relationship with Crayley had been one of those reckless, dangerous ones after her mother died, she never thought she'd actually fall for him, or that he'd turn out to be a monster. Though it hadn't been very hard to hide the bruises back then, but now there was Castle. Oh how'd he smother her with concern and anger. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, which Crayley had not failed to notice.

"Eight fucking years!" He screamed at her, his anger exploding. His foot came out of nowhere, slamming her square in the chest. Her eyes went wide out of shock, she couldn't breathe momentarily, she sat there, gasping for air that failed to enter her lungs. His foot came round again, this time stamping her in the gut. She cried out, but he just kept kicking. It was only when he fell back into the chair panting, sweat sticking the hair on his forehead, did he stop. She felt as though her body was going to give up on her, her entire body ached. She turned her head away as her body was racking with silent sobs, unable to control them, yet enough to not make a sound, she would not give him that satisfaction. "Say something" he said to her, the anger in his voice had evaporated.

"I'm not sorry." She tried to keep her voice from wavering, but failed.

"Oh I know you ain't, you're so self-righteous ain't cha." He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "How the hell did you live with yourself after that day, were you convinced I deserved it huh? How the hell could you go on with your life thinking that you killed an innocent man?!" He was beginning to raise his voice, she tried to shut him out, but something snapped.

"Innocent?! How the hell were you innocent?! You beat me, treated me like shit, you were killing me!" She screamed, tears of anger now flowing down her face.

"Well I'm sure killing you now!" He screamed, pulling out a revolver from the back of his pants, placing it on the scar on her chest. She was too shocked too even pull back, her mind was buzzing. "Now, shut up!" He roared, his face inches away from hers, seeing into her soul. "Now, how would you like your writer lover to find you in this spot, with a bullet through the same hole as before huh? He snarled at her, all breath had left her body and she was frozen to the spot. She could see the safety was off as he pulled back the hammer. "Except this time he ain't here to tackle you out of the way, but he will find your cold, decaying body." He sneered, she was still frozen to the spot and all she could think of was Castle. Him finding her here, mutilated, and it would go through his head that it was his fault, how he couldn't find her fast enough, weeping over her body. That thought alone made her want to die inside. He had his finger on the trigger, smiling, realising that was going to be her last image, she closed her eyes.

There was a small click.

She opened her eyes to see him howling with laughter, there had been no bullet in the chamber. She snapped out of her trance, and her breathing picked up, her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest. It clicked, that this was just more torture, and she ached for relief from it.

"You know that I can't kill you" he wipes the tears from his eyes, still struggling to reclaim his breath, "Not until I can make you beg for death, not until you know that Castle ain't gonna come, that he's given up darl."

"He'll.. come.." She gasped for long needed air, panic still rising within her. "He won't give up." She said with more confidence than she felt. He has to.

"Yeah, yeah, anyway, moving on." He said pulling the switchblade from out of his pocket, hearing the click of the blade snap up. "It's time to make you scream."

* * *

A/N

**Okay, I may need some help with ideas because I have no idea where this is gonna go!**

**Oh and thanks for reading, you're the best!**


End file.
